DATA AVAILABILITY : All the materials, raw data, and protocols used in the article are available upon request and without restriction. The data used in this article are available from Figshare (https:// figsh are. com/s/ 5640a 4e375 272e4 eebf1).ADDITIONAL FILE 1: SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 1. Extrapolation of uncertainties associated with the global survey used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 2. Main structure for the a priori structural equation model used in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 3. Structural equation models assessing the direct and indirect effects of environmental factors on the proportion (A) and richness (B) of ARGs in natural ecosystems only (i.e. croplands excluded, n = 802). SUPPLEMENTARY FIGURE 4. Global precipitation (A) and temperature (B) seasonality maps used in our study (https:// www. world clim. org/ data/ index. html). SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 1. List of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) mobile genetic elements (MGEs) considered in this study. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 2. Biomes included in this study. The biome classification was done based on vegetation field information and climatic information from the Köppen classification16. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 3. Environmental factors included in our structural equation model. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 4. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the proportion of soil ARGs. SUPPLEMENTARY TABLE 5. Standardized direct effects of SEM on the richness of soil ARGs.BACKGROUND : Little is known about the global distribution and environmental drivers of key microbial functional
traits such as antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Soils are one of Earth’s largest reservoirs of ARGs, which are integral
for soil microbial competition, and have potential implications for plant and human health. Yet, their diversity and
global patterns remain poorly described. Here, we analyzed 285 ARGs in soils from 1012 sites across all continents and
created the first global atlas with the distributions of topsoil ARGs.
RESULTS : We show that ARGs peaked in high latitude cold and boreal forests. Climatic seasonality and mobile genetic
elements, associated with the transmission of antibiotic resistance, were also key drivers of their global distribution.
Dominant ARGs were mainly related to multidrug resistance genes and efflux pump machineries. We further pinpointed
the global hotspots of the diversity and proportions of soil ARGs.
CONCLUSIONS : Together, our work provides the foundation for a better understanding of the ecology and global distribution
of the environmental soil antibiotic resistome.The European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant, a Large Research Grant from the British Ecological Society, the European Research Council, a Ramón y Cajal grant, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, a project of the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) and the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades of the Junta de Andalucía, Generalitat Valenciana, Australian Research Council, the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, funded by the German Research Foundation and Slovenian Research Agency.https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.comam2023BiochemistryGeneticsMicrobiology and Plant Patholog
